1. Create a powerful Introduction

Did you know that 8 out of 10 people will read the headline but only two out of ten will read any further? That statistic from Copyblogger just goes to show how difficult is it to keep your readers engaged.

Let’s face it – the Internet is awash with content competing for people’s attention. And that means you’ve got to grab your reader’s attention right from the beginning.

That’s why you need an Introduction that literally sucks your reader in right at the start.

The problem is vital because that’s why your visitor found your article in the first place. She had a problem: she typed a search query into Google, and found your article.

That’s the mindset of your reader – she has a problem and she’s looking for a solution. So you need to sketch out the problem. And the more graphically you do that, the more compelling your Introduction will be.

Of course, once you’ve explained the problem you need to tell the reader there’s a solution – that’s what you do in the next sentence.

And finally, there’s the promise – you’re asking your reader to give up 5 or 10 precious minutes in their day, so you need to assure them that it’s going to be worth their while. And you do that with the promise

You can see this technique in action in the first four paragraphs of this article.

Here’s another example from blogging expert Brian Dean. It has all four elements of a powerful Introduction:

For more tips on how to write compelling Introductions, head over to Successful Blogging and read my ‘Definitive Guide: How To Write A Compelling Intro For Your Next Blog Post’.

2. Use transitions that pull your reader down the page

Have you ever started reading a blog post and suddenly you find yourself at the end without knowing how you got there?

Reading it seemed effortless - you may not even have been aware that you were reading.

If that’s ever happened to you, the writer was probably using transitions.

Simply put, they’re short sentences that link one paragraph with the next. But they can be much more than that.

In the hands of an expert blogger, transitions make you feel the writer is having a one-on-one chat with you. They can make you feel the writer knows exactly what your problems are and understands your predicament.

Do that and you’ve hooked your reader – they feel you understand their problem and they’re willing to bet that you’ve also got the answer.

Transitions are such an important part of increasing time on page that I did a whole study of the different kinds of transitions used by some of the most successful bloggers out there.

For more tips on how to use transitions in your blog posts, head over to Smart Blogger and read my article ‘How to Use Transitional Phrases to Keep Your Readers Sliding Down the Page’.

3. Make it easy to read

Another way to increase time on page is simply to make it easier for people to read your content.

This is where a lot of bloggers fall down: the font size is too small, the column of text is too wide, or the text is simply too dense.

Here are the 5 things you can do to quickly and easily make your blog posts easier to read.

3.1 Font family

When choosing a font for your web pages, the first thing you need to decide is whether to go for serif or sans-serif. Serifs are the little feet and the curly bits at the top and bottom of each letter.

It’s generally agreed that in print, serif fonts are easier to read because the serifs on each letter lead the eye to the next letter.

Which fonts are better on the Internet, serif or sans-serif, is an ongoing debate amongst typographers and designers.

In the early days of the Internet, when computer monitors had fairly low resolutions, sans-serif fonts were definitely better. The curly bits on serif fonts tended to get lost on low-resolution screens.

But computer screens now have much higher resolution so serif fonts display better than they used to.

Georgia is a serif font specifically designed for the Internet and it’s the font I use.

So serif or non-serif is no longer a clear-cut choice.

Verdana, Helvetica, Open Sans, Arial (all sans-serif), and Georgia (serif) are generally considered to be the most readable fonts on the Internet. Verdana has the advantage that it was specifically designed for computer screens.

3.2 Font size

I’m always amazed by the number of blogs that use tiny font-sizes. Why make your readers squint?

So what font-size should you use?

That depends, of course, on what font you’re using.

But in general bigger is better. Some authorities, like Smashing Magazine, argue that 16 pixels should be the minimum font size for body text on a web page (I use 18 pixels).

Build Zoom reports that when they added a widget that displays images their time on site increased by a massive 150%!

Worried about the cost of using images in your blog post?

You don’t need to – here are 10 sites that offer images that are either licensed under Creative Commons (you can use them for free since the artist has waived their rights to their work) or are free of copyright restrictions:

6. Embed videos in your blog post

One of the easiest ways to increase time on page is to embed a video within your blog post.

Whatever the topic of your blog post, just head over to YouTube and type in the main keyword phrase of your blog post. Chances are there’ll be dozens of short videos on that very topic!

Just make sure the video is reputable and that its more than 3 minutes long and less than 10 minutes (too short and the video is not going increase your dwell time, too long and your visitor will not want to invest the time).

Wistia did a study of the effect of videos on ‘dwell time’ or time on page.

They found that the average time spent on pages with video was 7 minutes and 21 seconds whereas the average time spent on pages without video was 2 minutes and 48 seconds.

In other words, people spent on average 2.6x more time on pages with video than without.

If you’re wondering how to embed a video within your blog post, it’s easy!

Once you’ve found the video you want on YouTube, just click on the ‘Share’ icon (bottom right corner):

Then click on the ‘Embed’ option:

Then just copy the iframe code and drop it into a ‘raw html’ field in your WP editor.

ProTip: In the title of the video, include the length of the video in minutes and seconds. It helps your visitor decide if they want to commit to watching it.

Now I’m going to do exactly what I’ve been talking about…

Here’s a video by Neil Patel and Eric Siu titled: ‘A Stupidly Simple Way To Increase Time On Site by 19%’ (3 mins 57 secs)

By the way, this video contains a very cool tip about using the Amazon Polly WP plugin to increase dwell time – don’t miss it!